Chelsea Pictures has added multi-hyphenate directing duo Lalou & Joaquin to its roster for U.S. and U.K. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Creative partners since 2006, Lalou Dammond and Joaquin Baca-Asay like to make stories that are humanistic, witty, uplifting, visually striking and technically inventive. They have directed award-winning campaigns for global brands with accolades at Cannes, Clios, AICP, Effies, Ciclope, ADDYs and The One Show. As a solo director back in 2010, Baca-Asay earned a DGA Award nomination for four commercial entries–CSX’s “Breathe,” Volvo’s “Switch,” Bank of America’s “Doors” and Lenscrafters’ “See What You Love.”
Lalou and Joaquin’s Rick Younger Presents The Rick Younger Show won best pilot at 2023 NY Webfest, and is one of four selections at the 2024 Harlem International Film Festival.
In a joint statement, Lalou and Joaquin shared, “We’ve long admired the group of exceptionally talented filmmakers at Chelsea, and love the richness and individualism of each of their corners of the artistic universe. Lisa [Mehling] and her team clearly have a curatorial take on their roster, and we’re honored to be a part of it.”
After graduating from Princeton, Lalou jumped straight into filmmaking as a producer of award-winning independent films and documentaries. Joaquin began his career as a cinematographer, gaining an Oscar nod for The Lady In Waiting which he shot while a student at NYU Film School. He went on to shoot notable music videos and feature films, including James Gray’s We Own the Night and Two Lovers, both of which premiered at Cannes; Dylan Kidd’s Roger Dodger, which won best narrative feature at Tribeca Film Festival; Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker, which won awards at Sundance and Berlin, and the cult comedy classic, Super Troopers.
Currently, Lalou and Joaquin are in postproduction on a feature documentary set in the world of British electronic music, and Lalou is directing a documentary about her great-uncle, the radical civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter, that Joaquin is shooting. In their spare time they like to write and direct social justice PSAs, collaborate with other filmmakers on shorts, documentaries and television projects, and run their Craftwork Collaborative mentorship program for young creatives.
Chelsea owner and president Mehling said, “Lalou and Joaquin are true filmmakers and it’s an honor to have them join Chelsea. They are dogged in their drive to tell human stories and are collaborative to the core–they inspire us and we can’t wait to get to work.”
Prior to connecting with Chelsea, Lalou & Joaquin had been repped in the U.S. and U.K. by Biscuit Filmworks.
